Share your feedback on the AI services experiment in Nightly

[asafko]

Hi folks, 

In the next few days, we will start the Nightly experiment which provides easy access to AI services from the sidebar. This functionality is entirely optional, and it’s there to see if it’s a helpful addition to Firefox. It is not built into any core functionality and needs to be turned on by you to see it. 

If you want to try the experiment, activate it via Nightly Settings > Firefox Labs (please see full instructions here). 

We’d love to hear your feedback once you try out the feature, and we’re open to all your ideas and thoughts, whether it’s small tweaks to the current experience or big, creative suggestions that could boost your productivity and make accessing your favorite tools and services in Firefox even easier.

Thanks so much for helping us improve Firefox!

[jdarkside]

Please don't do this. People use Firefox because it's one of the only alternatives to the awful and violating chrome sphere, and embracing AI grifting nonsense and the inherent lack of care this technology has for the work of others is just showing everyone you have no idea what your actual user base uses your browser for. You're basically doing the sort of stuff Google does that people who use your browser want to escape.

[Entropic_Decay]

Respectfully, I do not want AI touching this browser in any way. If this gets pushed I'm jumping ship to a fork without it. Plagiarism Engines can take a short hike off a long drop as far as I am concerned.

[Krane]

Oh no, please for the love of god do not inject this AI chatbot/image generation garbage into Firefox. It is clear that the overwhelming majority in here does not want any of these 'features'.

If you are misguided enough to go against everything firefox stands for and pursue this, keep it as a completely separate extension and not something that comes bundled with firefox. 

God I despise this AI garbage.

[pranefuji]

AI is a financial liability, pending a bubble bursting upon the wide range of lawsuits around various industries that have embraced it. It has dramatically decreased users experience of using the web. It is a security risk and vulnerbility. It's use has significantly harmed numerous brands. These are not secrets. Do not integrate ai with mozilla.

[pommicket]

I hate this.

[synthesisDreame]

Please steer clear of LLMs and machine learning for the time being, there are countless ethical, legal, logistical, and even just basic business issues that I have yet to see any company touting AI services manage to resolve in a remotely decent manner.

[SenshellShark]

I have a lot of doubts that this would be very useful. LLMs still have a lot to prove in many respects of reliability, insight, energy usage, context awareness. This feature would be a mere gimmick against other features more conventionally developed and ran.

[lunarfox22]

Any AI features that Firefox rolls out I will disable. If I cannot disable the features, I will install an older version of Firefox that does not have those features and disable updates. I will sooner fork Firefox and maintain it myself then use a browser where these features are present.

Generative AI features like Chat GPT and image/audio/video generation are a bane on the modern internet, these products are blatant and obvious scams, and they are built on rampant theft, and it is a waste of time and resources to even bother integrating them into the browser when they will need to be depreciated in a couple of years when this obvious snake oil falls in on itself.

[deathkitten]

Wow. I just love how you're dismissing peoples' concerns about how these companies are ethically dubious at best, focusing on how they're supposedly protecting the end users privacy (for now) without any acknowledgement of the unethical manner in which these companies vacuum up data from people without their consent.

We use Firefox because it was the better browser, and right now Google is literally squashing ad-blocking (something that is both an accessibility need for people with ADHD *and* a digital safety need given how much spyware gets past Google's lack of filters in their ad services) and yet, Mozilla and Firefox are squandering the ability to fortify themselves as the safer and more user friendly option by baking AI garbage directly into the browser instead of leaving it as an extension if it's available at all.

I have been a long time Firefox user, and I'm scared that there doesn't appear to be any alternatives left out there other than you or Chrome (or Chrome based reskins). It's down right disgusting how much you do not care about your ethical footprint by bringing this garbage into your browser.

[gregdotexe]

Absolutely not. Keep the AI garbage out of the core product. Ease of acess can be obtained through extensions if desired.

I want nothing to do with this, and will abandon firefox entirely if this make it to main.

[ThomCote]

I switched from Chrome to Firefox because I didn't want to support Google's privacy nightmares and zealous development of LLM tech with no regard for the privacy or ownership of the writers, artists, and coders whose creations it scrapes and regurgitates indiscriminately. If Mozilla also chases the LLM trend, why should I stick with Firefox?

[Mpotat]

No

[echoparallax]

Extremely against this. From experience talking with my friends who haven't switched away from Chrome, if Firefox had LLM chatbots integrated, they'd have even less of a reason to switch to Firefox. Firefox should stand for the open and independent Web — not to promote web scrapers that ultimately replace it with a slurry of plagiarized content their models produce.

(Standard disclaimer: opinions and views expressed are my own.)

[AdorableSergal]

Please stop trying to make AI a thing. The whole thing is dead on arrival.

[eevee]

i've been here since phoenix and i gotta say, these last few years, i'm getting exhausted with going to bat for mozilla only to turn around and hear about another incredibly dubious decision being made a couple weeks later.

this is, primarily, a website in a sidebar.  i don't see why firefox needs to give special treatment to a handful of websites in this way.  the articles about this feature include a lot of fluff about preserving user choice, as if firefox were not already capable of loading any chatbot website you please.  they then harp about "responsible AI" while listing openai and google as the primary sources.  this feels like it must surely be an elaborate prank.

mozilla is making a political statement here: that it backs a technology that generates generic amalgum, convincing but completely fabricated details, and other kinds of verbal slurry.  that it thinks encouraging people to use a technology that helps produce buggier code, faulty summaries of prose, incorrect explanations of css syntax (ahem), etc., will somehow improve the web.  that it's glad to help push forward a desperate bet by billion-dollar megacorps in need of a win.  i must have missed when these things became mozilla's mission.

people who want to use a chatbot are already free to do so.  they seem to be getting increasingly hard to avoid, in fact!  they're in operating systems and phones and office suites and god knows what else.  i'm sure by this time next year i won't be able to buy a refrigerator without an LLM built in.  those people are already spoiled for choice.  what i would like is a reprieve from the lie machine.

[vertenflow]

This is not a good feature to have in a browser even if it is optional. Please do not include in Firefox.

[Linker]

I think this is really quite short-sighted, and could have devastating repercussions for Mozilla and Firefox in general. The main reason I've been using Firefox specifically is in the (apparently vain) hope that I could avoid the needless integration of AI into my day to day internet browsing. AI/LLMs as they currently stand have a myriad of ethical issues, from the legality of their information acquisition/scraping to the current push to disenfranchise and undermine many arts industries wholesale. And that's not to mention the devastating environmental impacts. Buying into the latest tech bubble will, I think, win you few points from those who consistently use your platform and tools. Please, do not do this. If I have to put up with AI, I might as well just jump ship to a Chrome-like browser and be done with it.

[ProfBV]

As a Firefox user, I don't agree with the presence of any sort of generative AI in the browser or promoted via the browser, even if it's optional on the user end. Please discontinue this feature.

[jannuary]

No, thanks

[JDHarper]

I just want to add my voice to the chorus of people who specifically *do not want* AI to be integrated into Firefox. I do not want my data transmitted to or parsed by any large language model owned by any corporation, non-profit, or government entity. I do not need or want a chatbot in my browser that can give me statistically average sentences. This stuff is radioactive, please keep it out of my favorite browser.

[mogwaipoet]

There is exactly one reason to use Firefox instead of Chrome, which is that Mozilla is a nonprofit that doesn't act/think like a tech company. Stop mindlessly following trends like a tech company would, or you will lose your only user demographic.

[blakestacey]

What is this doing in my web browser? Get it away.

[PleaseMozilla]

No. Please, no.  When I heard of Mozilla implementing A.I, I was hopeful it would be limited to only a local LLM, summarizing webpage content without sending any data externally.  But, of course once agian my rose tinted glasses mislead me. This is the stuff that not-so-ideal browsers do such as Opera and Chrome. As a Firefox user I have little interest in A.I, despite using it, I want my browser to be a good private alternative to the likes of Chrome. I believe other Firefox users want this too. And yet I see Mozilla making choices that resonate with an oppositional interest, that slowly turning away from privacy. This unsettles me and I worry for the future of Firefox.

PS: While you're at it why not add some sort of NFT trading into it, are we getting a MozillaCoin next?

[0x4d6165]

This is stupid and there's not even an option to use a local LLM. This feels like an advertisement. Get this out of my browser.

[Raptor85]

I like the integration, though I have to say the method currently of adding additional providers leaves a lot to be desired, I'm not a fan of it only pushing a handful of services without even a button for "custom" which most plugins for other software provide. (works fine from about:config but that shouldn't be a primary way of doing this)

My big fear though is that firefox is heading the way of original mozilla at this point and too many things that should be plugins or extensions becoming part of the core project, wasn't the entire point of starting firefox and mothballing mozilla to start over and keep it focused on browser only?

[Argent]

Absolutely not, and if you go through with this I have to look for another browser... again.

[Espiox]

Absolutely not, I switched back to Firefox to avoid the AI garbage that’s permeated Chrome/Edge.

[AndyDroid10X]

Very nice feature. Wish there could be a function to send the whole page text, not only the selection. If the text exceeds token limit, it could divide the text and send a prompt like "I will send the source which consists of X pages. Page 1:..."

[drmelon]

not now, not ever. don't.

[ostava]

My feedback is you bought an express ticket out of my devices by adding this. I'm done with you. Done.

[ArthurPerkins]

I migrated to Firefox due to the lack of AI integration. If it is added, I will migrate to another browser.

[0xHazel]

really annoying to see mozilla pushing this crap 😕 makes it hard to recommend firefox

[rochechouart13]

The so-called "AI" has a myriad of ethical, environmental, and social issues. It's a bubble that relies on some big corporations trying to get investments. Having this bull**bleep** implemented into Firefox is a terrible decision that goes against all the values of the Mozilla Manifesto. No matter whether a user chooses Hugging Chat, or an on-device model, these models have been trained on a wide range of material, disregarding copyright or licences, using a lot of energy, and relying on underpaid workers to further train the model. I am utterly disgusted by this choice and your attempts to justify this are out of place in the open source community.

[Hertog]

Why?

anyone helped by this could already have opened a browser tab for it?

Or if you wish to have it play a more integral role an extension should suffice.

So far from EVERY post I have seen about this the absolute vast majority has screamed a loud a clear HELL NO so why ignore that cry? Does mozilla think it knows better than this majority?

[Resuna]

There is no AI software. There are parody generators that are at best useful for entertainment purposes. They are not search engines and do not generate results that are anything but plausible extensions of the query. Not correct, plausible, something that a human might mistake as being written by a human. They do not have any place as a default part of a browser. If you want to make an extension for amusement purposes, go ahead, but keep it out of your code base.

[DiogoConstantin]

This is something I would rather Mozilla wouldn't do.

1. I don't want a chat bot on my browser;
2. I don't want my browser making any calls to any external AI provider. By external I mean anything not running on my browser;
3. I only want AI features for things such as translations, if: they're not chat bots, are not making calls to external services (anything outside the browser), or if there's also the possibly to make calls to external services they have to also available to bee Free Software and easy to deploy by all.

If Mozilla still wants to do this, then please don't make it built in within the browser, make it an extension.

I would much rather that you focus on things such as making Firefox containers easier to use when opening a new window or new tab, integrating temporary Firefox containers.

[rdna]

If AI is added to Mozilla, frankly I would be happy to see it die in a hole. It would make you no better than any other browser creator out there and show to everyone that you have well and truly lost your way. I used to take pride in using Firefox; What used to be a private, user-centric browser that has clearly fallen off its path of glory with Pocket advertisements on my new tab page by default, Firefox VPN adverts baked into the browser and now this AI garbage. Despicable.

[cam_]

Hi, I do not want this in my browser, and I will stop using Firefox if it's integrated.

[Spottedkitty]

No. Just no. Mozilla have been making some really dumb decisions of late and this is another one. If it must be includes I want a way of removing it entirely so it can never be "accidentally" turned on now or in the future..

[matthew_t]

I moved back to Firefox around 5 years ago after getting fed up with Google Chrome's constant adding of nonsense. I really like Firefox and would like it to stay that way. Gen AI is an extremely expensive and hurtful fad, like if pogs burned down forests or webkinz took away jobs from artists. The use case for gen AI has proven to be almost none and it is almost certainly going to crash once VC dries up. Firefox has allowed me to be free of Gen AI garbage for most of the last two years and I'm disappointed they're open to incorporating access to it into the browser. Please don't do this.